Purple Cow spotted in Southdowns

Purple Cow thrift store and a new building slated for Acadian-Perkins Plaza

Changes are in the works at Acadian-Perkins Plaza, the shopping center on the northeast corner of South Acadian Thruway and Perkins Road. Owner Jon Claitor has signed a lease with Purple Cow, a Christian community outreach center, to open a thrift store in the 12,475-square-foot space that for the past several years has housed the Spirit Halloween store during September and October. Claitor says he has signed a five-year lease with the group, which is associated with several downtown churches, and that it has two five-year options to renew. This will be the second location for Purple Cow, which has operated a store at 6586 Jones Creek Road since 2004. “We think the Southdowns area is a great location for our store,” says Sonja Mendes, who works at the Jones Creek store. “There’s lots of traffic, people and LSU students.” The store plans to open Aug. 1, Mendes says. Claitor, meanwhile, says he is moving forward with plans to develop a new, 8,500-square-foot building at his shopping center that will be perpendicular to Perkins Road and will abut a parcel in the shopping center parking lot recently acquired by Red River Bank for a new bank branch. The parcel was at the center of a legal battle between Claitor and its owner over a servitude issue. A state court of appeals recently ruled against Claitor, clearing the way for the parcel’s owner to sell the land to the bank for its planned 2,500-square-foot branch. Claitor says the $901,000 sale price of the land, at $49 per square foot, motivated him to build, on spec, the new wing of his shopping center. Before he begins, however, he is hoping to secure an anchor tenant. The new development will displace a Whitney Bank ATM machine and two kiosks that currently sit in the parking lot. —Stephanie Riegel Daily Report/Business Report